#compute engine

[adamshallperish]

my beautiful girlfriend "open link in new tab"

[codeonedigest]

Master Google Cloud: Deploying Node JS APIs on VM

Full Video Link - https://youtu.be/gxZ-iJNCbAM Check out this new video on the CodeOneDigest YouTube channel! Learn how to create Virtual Machine in Google Cloud Platform, Setup Google Compute Engine VM & Deploy run JS APIs in VM. #codeonedigest

In this tutorial, we will create & setup Google Compute Engine Virtual Machine in Google Cloud Platform. We will be deploying & running javascript APIs in google compute engine virtual machine. We will be opening firewall port for incoming API request in VM. We will also learn how to deploy API code and run API service in google compute engine virtual machine. I will provide step by step guide to…

[fantastic-nonsense]

however bad of a day you're having, know that it's not nearly as bad as whatever the Crowdstrike security team is going through since waking up this morning

[retropopcult]

Engineer Karen Leadlay working on the analog computers in the space division of General Dynamics, 1964.

[foone]

Have you heard about the Polish Train company, Newag, and the bullshit it turns out they got up to?

So, the regional rail operator Koleje Dolnośląskie bought some Newag Impuls back in 2016 . In late 2021, some of them need to have major maintenance done, as they've been in service a while. So the company SPS (Serwis Pojazdów Szynowych) gets the contract to fix them. They basically take the train apart, replace a bunch of it, following all the rules in the documentation Newag gave them, and... it won't move. The train says everything is fine, the brakes are off, there's plenty of power, but you push the throttle up and it won't move.

SPS spends a while trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong, with no luck. So they hire some hackers from the Polish security group Dragon Sector. Dragon Sector figures out how to get into the code of the computer system that runs the train, and OH MY GOD.

So it turns out there's a secret train-lock system. If it's on, the train won't move. This will be triggered in some situations you might think are normal: the clocks are wrong, the serial numbers of the various parts have changed, and a firmware mismatch between the main computer and the power system. Now, the fact that it makes sense to not run the train in these situations until someone can check it? that doesn't extend to the fact the train uses a SECRET lock system, rather than just popping up an error message telling you what's wrong. There's also the problem that while these are all potential error problems, they can't be cleared by anyone with the technical manuals, which are supposed to cover everything about how to run these trains. Only Newag themselves can reset this system.

Which, you know, keeps SPS from properly fixing them. Only Newag can fix them now, but not because SPS lacks any technical ability, but because Newag sabotaged their own trains. But don't worry: it gets worse.

So now that Dragon Sector knows what's happening, they get to look at other trains. It turns out the trains aren't all running the same software, and there are other tricks in there.

One of them is a "how long has the train been stopped?" check. If the train hasn't hit 60 km/h in 10 days, the train locks itself and won't move until Newag can clear it. So, like, if a train is ever out of service, like it's going to a repair place... it'll break itself. Unless the repair place is owned by Newag.

But two of the trains go further: See, these trains have GPS built in, right? You may be able to guess where this is going...

THEY JUST MAKE THE TRAIN CHECK IF IT IS PARKED AT THEIR COMPETITORS' REPAIR YARD AND BREAK ITSELF IF IT WAS.

The sheer audacity of this move. This is frighteningly bullshit anti-competition self-sabotage.

This has, obviously, made some parts of the Polish government to start investigating this. Newag may be (and hopefully will be) in a lot of trouble.

For more info, there's a great video of a presentation by the three people from Dragon Sector who did the hacking, which was presented at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Ars Technica also has an article on it, but it predates the presentation so it doesn't have some of the later details.

Anyway, the good news is that in the end the hackers at Dragon Sector were able to unlock most of the trains: A few had additional trickery that they didn't want to hack around, because it might break the train's certification. For the others, they discovered undocumented "cheat codes" in the software that they could use to bypass the secret lockouts... presumably the same ones that Newag would have used when they "repaired" trains.

[prokopetz]

The funniest possible outcome of all these Google antitrust disclosures re: deceptively re-writing people's search queries in order to maximise Google's ad revenue would be if the corporations that paid for those ads decide that Google has been defrauding them the whole time. The ultimate "bite each other's dicks off" scenario.

[punstars]

[perotovar]

#he had 2 min of screen time and every second was gold

PEDRO PASCAL as SANTOS Drive Away Dolls (2024) dir. Ethan Coen

[scipunk]

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (2010)

[secondaryartifacts]

[computer-nerd-girl]

[cyanogen-miasma]

nerd fight

my money's on geologist or engineer but I'm the one making the poll so I can't vote

feel free to reblog with reasons why you think your chosen STEM nerd would win in a fight against all the others

edit: for some reason I can vote

[anonymousdormhacks]

Whats the opposite of gothic? I'm in love with comp sci anti-gothic where it's just people being surprisingly polite and nice and funny through computers. A program's first lines are always "Hello world!". SMTP protocols apparently say "hello, pleased to meet you" to each other to establish a connection with a handshake. Python has a different version called Andaconda, which has a smaller version called miniconda. C++ is just C continuously improving on itself, because the ++ operator means to add one onto a previous value, and C# is two ++ stacked on top of each other. Lawmakers have to talk about the ethics of saving "cookies" to computers because one guy liked fortune cookies and decided to call them that. The internet itself wasn't created with security in mind because it was just meant to be a way for a group of people who trusted each other using it to send each other information, and so on, and so forth

[omeletcat]

i got an old laptop from my grandpa and was googling about it, and the wikipedia page for the micro-soft acer aspire has an image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page, containing the image of the acer aspire with the wikipedia page....

[curtwilde]

X

[homestuckreplay]

Is The Wayward Vagabond Good At Chess?

On page 721 of Homestuck, the Wayward Vagabond kills time by playing chess against himself – a ‘stiff training regimen’ (p.720) for the citizen-militia of Can Town that leads to Black checkmating White, just as it was prophesied by Nannasprite that the forces of darkness would always triumph over light. But how does WV’s chess game actually play out, and what can this tell us about them and about Sburb?

First, as @tenaciouschronicler pointed out, the board is set up incorrectly. It’s a perfect mirror of how the board should be – the bottom left and top right squares on a chessboard should always be black, but in WV’s game, they’re white. To analyze this, I transcribed the actual moves that WV makes, and flipped them all horizontally – moving a piece to a2 became h2, b3 became g3, c4 became f4, etc – at which point the game becomes correct.

Here's the game after move 6 and move 13.

And, in standard chess notation (which is surprisingly quick to learn!), the moves that got us to this point.

d4 Nf6

c4 g6

Nc3 Bg7

e4 O-O

e5 Ne8

f4 d6

Be3 c5

dxc5 Nc6

cxd6 exd6

Ne4 Bf5

Ng3 Be6

Nf3 Qc7

Qb1 dxe5

Every move WV makes is legal within standard chess, so right away, we know they’ve got a good grasp of the rules and aren’t cheating. As Black, they play the King’s Indian Defense, which allows White to control the board in the early game in hopes of a counter-attack afterwards – according to chess.com, it is a ‘risky opening’ that ‘leads to unbalanced positions where Black tries to fight for an advantage instead of equality’ and makes it ‘more difficult for White to play for a draw, which tends to lead to more decisive games’.

Black’s fifth move with the knight is uncommon, but not bad. I spoke to a chess International Master to get his thoughts on the game, and he said ‘Normally people play 4…d6 in the King’s Indian to stop the knight being pushed back like this, but what Black did is also good, and he has a comfortable position out of the opening.’ He described the King’s Indian as ‘a typical fighting opening to get White to overextend’, and White fell for the play.

Homestuck doesn’t show us the middlegame, instead returning to WV’s mayoral dreams and Tab drinking as the timer rapidly counts down – but we return to the game with White in a terrible position. Here's the game where we pick up, and with White in checkmate.

Here, White is in check with an opportunity to take the opposing queen, but instead plays the following endgame moves.

Ke2 Qxg4

Kf2 Ne4

Kf1 Qg3

Re1 Qf2

This isn’t a strategic choice, but ultimately doesn’t matter - ‘No reason at all not to take the queen, White’s move is ridiculous - but he’s completely lost in the endgame anyway, with no real drawing chances’ (Chess IM). The game ends quickly, and the IM’s overall analysis is that ‘Black plays very well, either a strong tournament player or he’s cheating :) But not enough moves to go off to decide that. White is much weaker’.

Of course, Black and White are the same player. This tells us that WV does have a strong knowledge of chess, but either only knows how to play as black, or has a strong bias towards black winning. Either is believable. As a citizen of the ominous planet where the black chess pieces live, WV would likely have spent a lot of time learning strategies for Black to play, but their only knowledge of White would be how to counter their moves. They’re also indoctrinated into loyalty to the dark kingdom royalty, and to seeing Black as the superior force in battle, fated to always triumph.

Especially notable is WV’s unwillingness to capture Black’s queen. It’s an obvious move that wouldn’t have cost them the game. On page 687, WV asserts their hatred of kings as ‘petty, bossy tyrants’ who are ‘basically awful in every way’, but says nothing about queens – I wonder if WV retains some loyalty towards the dark kingdom’s queen, leading to an internal conflict where they’re unwilling to harm even her can representation.

While the battle/chess game likely plays out differently in each iteration of Sburb, WV comes from John’s game and is recreating the battle ‘years in the future’. Can this game tell us about dark and light kingdom politics during John’s game, predicting what we’ll see next in Homestuck? If so, it seems like four white pawns – perhaps representing the four players – will be allowed to initially advance, making it appear that they’re doing well in the game. John, Rose, Dave and GG will have some successes, and might let themselves get complacent with their abilities.

But the dark kingdom will hold back their best resources, and plan for the long term. They’ll take advantage of a couple big mistakes our main characters make while fighting on the side of light, skillfully eliminate these pieces from the board, retain their own queen while destroying the light kingdom’s, and, as the title of page 721 foretells, ‘lead [their] men to victory’.

It’s not a great prophecy for John and his friends – but then again, it’s uncommon for a piece taken off the chessboard to travel to another planet and start sending commands back through time. So, maybe there’s still a chance to swing the real battle in light’s favor.